Casper Creek/Duke Couloir

Daily Vert: 1500m + 1000m
Total Vert so far: 29,265m

Thanks to our successful recon mission last week and some sunny weather in the forecast Runar and I decided to head back to Casper Creek and attempt to ski the Duke Couloir. We decided to go for an overnight trip, and at the very last minute Vince decided that he would sled in with Matt Francisty and join us on the 2nd day.

On day one the weather was fairly overcast and it was snowing on and off all day. Due to some poor route finding we accidentally skinned up the east flank of Vantage Ridge, but after finding some lines that looked quite good and discovering acceptable snow quality, we stayed there for 2 laps.

Runar gets a sneak peak of Mt Duke through a crack in the clouds from near the summit on the east side of Vantage Ridge

Shredding back down in surprisingly acceptable snow

After two laps on the east aspects we moved over to the lower bowls of Duke itself, and skied even better snow on the north aspects. We were also treated to our first good look at the Duke Couloir, which occupied our attention for the rest of the weekend.

The Duke Couloir from below. The cornice doesn't look that big... right....?

Day one GPS track

Day one elevation profile

The following morning we met Vince and Matt at the end of the sled road as planned, and made fairly good time to the Duke/Vantage col, and then up the West ridge of Duke. A word or warning here: In John Baldwin's book (you know the one I mean) he states that there is a class 3 rock scramble part way up, but doesn't specifically recommend ice axes or crampons. Based on our experience, and the fact that I read several trip reports of people being turned back from the summit while researching this trip, I would say the to reach the summit quickly and safely, and ice axe and crampons are almost a necessity. The ridge was extremely windswept and rimed, and the snow quality and climbability was all over the shop. We did make it as far as the couloir entrance with out ice tools, but some parts were pretty sketchy, and there seemed to be a lot more of the same on the short steep section between us and the true summit. In conclusion, bring crampons! Anyway, despite the sketchy climb, the views were fantastic.

Mt Howard and its massive couloir and lower face. Definitely keen for this one...

Great view of (L to R) Howard, Matier and Joffre

An unnamed couloir on and unnamed peak in between Howard and Snowspider. Rumour has it access is fairly easy from the Snowspider area to this peak, but I'd love to hear more about it if anyone has been there.

Skinning up the Ridge before it gets steep and sketchy.

Runar and Vince plan out our route.

Despite some slow climbing on the steep part of the ridge, we made it too the entrance of the couloir in around 3 hours from the end of the sled road. We set up a quick bucket seat anchor and proceeded to check out the entrance. Needless to say the cornice was CONSIDERABLY bigger than we anticipated.... the original plan had been to attempt to dig a small cleft in the cornice and then to slide in around the side, but after over an hour of digging we realised that it was so big, and the chute so steep, that we weren't actually getting any closer to the ground. We only had 2 harnesses between the 4 of us, but after a quick discussion we decided it would be possible for all of us to swap harnesses and rappel in over what remained of the cornice.

Runar getting ready to rappel. The cornice was still sizeable even after all the digging. Photo by Vince Shuley

Chilling out in the bucket seat anchor. Literally. It was freezing in there.

I don't remember exactly what we were talking about here, but it was obviously very important... and also very funny.

Vince sets up on the opposite edge for some sweet shots.

After a few hours hard work Runar makes the first turns in the Duke Couloir. And yes, it was F**king steep!

Vince on the rope shooting Matt descend.

My first turn in the couloir. The top section was extremely steep, but the limited exposer meant full on pant pooping was kept to a minimum.

Matt grabs a shot of Vince as he descends. Photo by Matt Francisty

The snow in the chute its self was pretty variable, probably not helped by the fact we had spent a good few hours shovelling cornice debris onto to it, but the skiing was still pretty good. The couloir was much narrower and steeper than we were expecting, barely 1 cat track wide most of the way down, but it was very exciting to ski something which doesn't see a whole lot of descents each year. After the couloir we skinned up a short way and then skied the lower west bowls, where the snow quality improved dramatically.

Matt Francisty on the lower face. Photo by Vince Shuley.

Having the sled present made the exit even easier than you would expect and before we knew it we were back at the highway and on our way home. Over all this was a great trip to a great area, that I would certain recommend it to someone looking for a fairly technical challenge. The lower reaches of Duke also contain a plethora of fun lines that would make fast and fun laps when the snow is good. Just remember to bring your crampons if you want to go for the summit!